Harold White of NASA’s Johnson Space Center is currently leading an effort to design a warp drive space ship. But, as Amy Teitel explains in a story for Vice’s Motherboard, the fact that this is happening does not necessarily mean a real working warp drive is possible. It’s more about the fact that NASA is partly in the business of letting really smart people try things that are kind of crazy and unlikely, if they can back up the idea with a reasonably plausible hypothesis. Speculative research is a thing that happens.

I don’t think there are too many things I want more in this world than to live in a world where warp drive is a reality. The other half of that want is the ability to say “warp speed ahead” and not be talking Sci Fi.